Leo Burnett takes giant leap backwards!

You just know it's getting weirder and more fucked up by the day when you get news that Leo Burnett has just introduced an agency wide dress code named "Dress for Success" with particular emphasis on the scruffy fuckers in creative. No more jeans, tees and sneakers for the guys. All the women now have to dress like those weirdo breakaway Mormon freaks they just hauled off in Texas. Drug tests every Friday (OK, I just made that up.) Read all the sorry fucking details in the incredibly ugly poster below... Way to go guys... Fuck the work, as long as we walk around like a bunch of missionaries, the clients are going to love our arse. That's worth a triple fuck... Fuck, fuck, fuck!

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Fuck!

Comments

[Sam]

What the fuck?!?! The WHOLE reason I wanted to get into advertising was to avoid the smart casual bullshit and go to work in jeans..

Oh and the drugs and drink and sex

[James]

This is a joke, right?

[HighJive]

It does seem like a joke. For starters, Burnett usually designs things much better—mostly because they view even internal memorandum as potential awards show fodder.

[100w33]

say what you will about our gaff, but this is the most ridiculous shit i ever heard.

[Auntie Christ]

Women are allowed to wear "'trousers!" Who wrote this thing - Eleanor Roosevelt? And will somebody please make this illustration style go away. If you work down in the salt mines and no clients ever see you this shit is meaningless. Find some other minutae to boost your bottom line.

[The Cartoonist]

This is great. I think anyone in the creative department should be forced to wear white lab coats anyway. And the account handlers would look fab in yellow boiler suits, with a fat "LEO BURNETT" printed on the back.

[Alex Wipf]

Guys, this is, like, the best viral idea ever!! It's like Whopper Freakout for Ad Agencies!

[joe reach]

"new professional attitude" welcome...

[me]

something tells me this isn't real. what would keep a bunch of actually valued people (you know, ECDs) from just walking out? the brain drain at levels the screwed-up suits would notice is potentially enormous, as is the cheap labour exodus.

anyway, I can't wait to hear from "leo burnetters" ...

[bg]

If this is real, then someone in HR must’ve seen an episode of Mad Men and sad, you know, we need to return to the days of yesteryear when men were, ‘dapper.’

I will not be deterred from my career goal to be paid to wear jeans.

[Tanner]

All the creative work looks blandly the same. Why not the human robots that create it, too?

[popgoestheweasel]

Hmm. At my agency, mandatory dress code for all female staff includes Friday tutus and ballet tights. Staff with lumpier thighs are permitted a four day work week as this tends to scare off fewer clients.

But THIS (the Leo Burnett thing) has simply GOT to be bollocks. There's a tiny line of type at the bottom of the page that for the life of me I can't fucking read and that my screen manages to chop off when I click on the image to enlarge it.

I downloaded said image to my desktop and it all looks fuzzy in Photoshop and it's a 300dpi image (WTF?). Does anyone know what that line says?

Probably telling us we're all suckers and that the poster (which is awful ... looks like some account handler with an MBA and too little to fucking do did it in Microsoft Word) is some fucking viral piece for some gobshite boutique shop touting for trade.

And you know what? If that's the case it will probably win an award. How fucked up is that?

[Sam Roberts]

It says at the bottom:

"got a better idea about how we do our work? email: betteridea@leoburnett.com"

This strikes me as a way of encouraging Leo Burnett staff to put forward radical ideas for reform to management in order to improve anything that might appear beauracratic or outdated. Clearly got a few people though!

[hismissingfinger]

The fine print at the bottom reads -

got a better idea about how we do our work? email: betteridea@leoburnett.com

[Wisey]

At least they didn't say 'slacks'.
I hate that word.

[popgoestheweasel]

Ah, so the mystery is solved.

[JBK]

Certainly a dumb idea, but someone has to stop the spread of d-bags wearing Ed Hardy clothing.

[Toad]

So this is a joke, right? A marketing ploy that's supposed to generate publicity for LB? (Allergies in high gear, so sorry if I'm missing the obvious.)

Best line is "our new professional attitude" - WTF? Were they "unprofessional" before this?

[aoa]

It’s gotta be a joke. “Cotton trousers” C’mon. Even Leo’s corpse would blush at such a desperate maneuver. The only clients who would give a crap would be bottom feeders. Plus, what a great time to crush morale. Not to mention making an old school, out-of-touch shop look….well old school and out-of-touch.

[Lori Magno]

{Even you creatives} Hmmm, continuing to speak down to the art monkeys. I can hear the return lob now. {Even you useless, non-billable HR idiots should be able to come up with better copy than that. When you do, stop by and ask me who I'm wearing.} Cotton trousers my ass.

[AdPuppet]

The execution was likely due to the hordes of creatives rushing to contribute.

[popgoestheweasel]

I'm not sure if I need to spell this out or not. Probably not, but that's never stopped me before, has it?

So, as my earlier question received two answers (tah very much for those by the way) the answer to the question "this is a joke, right?" is no, it's not a joke. It's an ad. But sadly, not a very good on.

[popgoestheweasel]

or even :good one". I blame fat Friday fingers.

[Flacktory Worker]

Oh dear. Cotton trousers? Are they pitching the Dockers account or something?

Also, think of how confusing it will be to clients. How will they tell the creatives from the account people?

If they're being really purist about the John Molloy dictum, they need to forbid the wearing of green, which according to DFS makes you seem untrustworthy. (You think I'm kidding...)

[Adam Kmiec]

The funniest thing about the whole "scam" was how poorly the flyer/print piece was designed. Think about it, the call to action, the one thing they wanted their employees to do...was in the smallest font and buried at the bottom.

Are you sure, DRAFT didn't design it for them?

[Jane Sample]

i fucking love microsoft fucking clip art!

Fuckity fuck fuck (is that enough swearing? fuck)